A solar dryer was built especially to test the feasibility of drying water hyacinth to approximately 15 percent water content for use as a protein additive for cattle feed. Other research has been done with water hyacinth on determining its value as a cattle food, on harvesting, on producing methane, on its usefulness for removing pollutants from water, on its growth rate, etc., and these are all reported elsewhere. The objectives of this experiment were to: (1) determine the feasibility of using solar energy to dry water hyacinth to 15 percent water content in Southern Mississippi at the NASA/NSTL; (2) evaluate a simple solar collector design using air as the transfer media and without heat storage; and (3) determine the ratio of solar energy to commercial electrical energy in a facility of this type using electric powered fans to move the air for drying.

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